Steps to prevent health facility violence

A risk management expert believes hospitals must begin adopting a zero-tolerance mindset toward such violence toward staff, according to an article on the Hospitals and Health Networks website.

More than half of emergency department nurses experience physical or verbal violence in a given week, and the majority do not report the incident, Monica Cooke, a mental health registered nurse and risk management consultant, said.

Cooke listed four precautions that hospitals must take to begin making that shift and building a culture of safety: They include a zero tolerance concept.

Zero tolerance doesn’t mean agressive behavior is not going to happen, but when it does, a facility has systems, processes and people in place that intervene at the lowest possible level when there is an escalation.